What Was I Thinking?

I can't believe I did this!

Bridgette's 8th Grade Science teacher sent out a letter asking parents to sign up for a Friday during the school year to co-teach one of her Science classes with your child. It's called the "Family Science Project."

In a moment of weakness or sheer insanity, I agreed to do it with Bridgette. What was I thinking???? The day after I sent the letter back to the teacher I questioned myself. I mean, I am no Science guru. Give me Language Arts, or Speech Class - I could even bluff my way through Home Ec...but Math or Science...not so much.

It's not like the rules are stringent. You and your child can present any Science topic. 45 minutes or less. Any Friday.

Guess what I'm doing today at 1:25?

It's crazy! I even tried to get out of it! The teacher called a few weeks ago to tell me how much she loves Bridgette, how B. is a leader in the class, blah, blah, blah and I actually said, "You know, I'm not a Science person. If you wanted me to do a comedy routine with Bridgette, maybe...but Science? Well..." I mean - a comment like that? If you were a teacher would you even let me in the door? She didn't even skip a beat! She assured me that the kids just LOVE having somebody else come in the room and present Science for them - it's a treat! All I could think of was that Science (like Math) was BORING and I couldn't bear to do that to all those kids!

Well...Aaron saved the day!!! A few weeks ago, he came home from high school and he was telling me what they were doing in school. They had a two-day school week, because the teachers had a state-wide conference to go to in the latter part of the week. Aaron was telling me all the lame things they were doing on Monday and Tuesday. (I'm sure the teachers were trying to save themselves from having to correct a bunch of stuff while on their days off, and I'm sure Aaron was exaggerating for shock value.) He told me that in history they watched "Saturday Night Live" to celebrate the anniversary of the first Saturday Night Live (He said it was a parody of "some French cook" - I deduced it was the Julia Childs parody - the one they showed on "Julie and Julia"?), and he said they watched a movie in some other class, and the Muppet Show in Spanish 2 (with English subtitles), but then he said the most marvelous thing...he said we made ice cream in Pre-Chemistry! I said WHAT???!!!
He thought I was shocked, but really I was excited! Ice Cream? Science? I could do THIS? He backpedalled, because he was afraid I was going to do something crazy like contact his teacher or something. He said, "We were studying phase changes."
*Blank look from me.* Then he continued, "You know - solid, liquid -" I cut him off, "Of COURSE!" We could do this! This was simple!
So, Aaron made our power point presentation - which was SO HUMBLING!!! The first slide, he puts the FOUR phase changes "Solid, Liquid, Gas, Plasma". I'm like "Plasma? What's Plasma?" I think that's a new one. I never learned that one. He looked at me, annoyed, and explained (like he was talking to a Kindergartener, mind you) that plasma was "ionic matter." When I looked like he was talking in Greek (which he may as well have been), he said "You know? Like stars?" I told him he better take that one off, because I can't teach what I don't know and I'm not presenting something I can't answer questions about! He mumbled something about how he didn't even put dark matter on the powerpoint slide.
Whatever.
Then, when he's done, he tells me how he put the presentation on Bridgette's flashdrive that she has for school.
Great.
And how she'll give it to her teacher, who will load it on her computer.
Great.
And how it will then show up on the...
...Smartboard!
????!!!!!

Okay, I've seen them in the classrooms, and I've seen the teachers use them - I'm not that much of a dinosaur. BUT - I'll be honest - I've never used one. I learned all the warnings.
"Tap the board once to advance to the next slide."
"NEVER slide your finger across it - or you'll advance through your whole presentation in a second!"
"Don't accidentally tap it more than once..."
I asked if I could just have a clicker, like a normal projector. Then Aaron looked at me like he was feeling sorry for me and said, "Mom, nobody uses clickers anymore. Or projectors."
Um, I do.

The ice cream making itself will be the biggest part of the project. Bridgette and I have practiced that a few times. We're making it in plastic bags. The ingredients go in smaller plastic bags, which get put in a gallon freezer bag full of ice with salt on top. Rock salt actually solidifies the liquid into ice cream, but rock salt is not non-toxic and I'm afraid it will somehow seep into the smaller bag and I'm not willing to chance somebody getting ill from it. So, we're using table salt and making milkshakes which are partially solidified, and they can use their imagination about it becoming completely solid...sick and solid or healthy and semi-solid? I'll say that they had a choice, and I chose for them! Bridgette said that if you give a bunch of 8th graders any kind of treat the last hour of the day, they'll be happy - no matter what!

I'm honestly more nervous about this stupid presentation for a bunch of 8th graders than I am about speaking in front of scads of women. I will be so glad when it's 2:35 today.

What was I thinking?